Surprise!!!

Kevin's birthday was last Thursday, May 28th, so I planned a surprise party for him! Here's who was there:

COLIN,

ME (of course),

CARLOS,

ROB,

KATE (this was taken after she tried some of the chicken poop - read on for more info),

JESS,

SHUN (our Korean friend!)

the beautiful, SO WON (Shun's girlfriend),

...and the birthday boy, KEVIN~

First, we all had dinner together at a famous restaurant called Busan Kalbi... It's Kev's favorite place! (Sorry, we forgot to take pictures there). After dinner, Shun, took us to a place for some drinks and "anju" (appetizers).   The name of the restaurant, when translated into English, was "Chicken Poop House!" No Joke!  It's because it's famous for serving chicken tail, which by the way tastes like rubber!  On the positive side, it was one of the greatest hole in the wall bars any of us had ever been to in Busan, with writing on the wall, tons of University students, cheap appetizers and drinks, folding tables and plastic stools!  

The plate of "chicken tail"

Chocolate Birthday Cake - mmmm

Carlos, Shun, and So Won

Kevin, Carlos, and the ladies!

Kevin, with MORE ladies!

Carlos was reassuring me that Kevin was not attracted to any of the girls he was hanging out with because their teeth looked like this!  (Very funny!)

Makoli and Cider...  At this place, you pile all of the bottles into a basket and then they charge you for however many you had.  The bill - 28,000 won - The equivalent of about $20.00!  That was for 8 people to drink and eat for 4 hours! 

Makoli is traditionally drunk from a bowl, instead of a cup!  I thought this was a funny picture of cheering... Anyhow, "Gumbeh!  Cheers, to Kevin, and may you have many, many, many more wonderful years ahead!  Happy Birthday Love!"

Kevin saw it...

Today, Kevin saw a student at his elementary school wearing a t-shirt that said "pleasure" on her chest and "suprising happiness here" near her vagina! YIKES

Is teaching Slang such a good idea?

Today, during my teacher class, I taught slang words like sick, sweet, cool, slut, blunt, and chola (because Stella was wearing a shirt that said "Chola Girl" on the front). At the end of the lesson I asked each of them to pick one of the slang words and create a sentence. This is what one of the married male teachers said,

"It makes me feel good when I see a slut."

I didn't sign up for this...

I just got a phone call from Stella to meet her in the Science room for some soy milk. I thought that was a weird thing for us to drink, but off I went to the science room anyway. When I got there, I realized it was NOT soy milk, but rather soy bean paste, mixed with milk. I was handed a FULL cup and took a very tiny sip, knowing that I would probably think it was disgusting. They all laughed and one of the teachers reached her hand to take it from me to drink it herself. They asked me what I thought it tasted like and honestly, the closest thing I could think of was bisquick pancake batter. Now, imagine trying to drink a whole cup of that stuff! These Koreans are crazy! uuuggg

Becoming Fluent!

One of my friends, Charity, asked me how many Korean words I knew, so I started to make a list this afternoon. As of today, I know 90 words! I've typed them with the roman alphabet, for the simple reason that it would take me forever to find all the right hangul keys on the keyboard. So, here's proof! Enjoy,

anyonghaseyo, whoagunshil, mashita, pap, anyonghashimika, kamsamnida, gomahwah, moout, anyong, il, iee, sam, saw, oh, eug, chill, pall, ship, komupsumnida, anyonghekaseyo, odisuh, dongasu, chagi, mashisayo, anyonghekayseyo, chingu, pangapsumnida, mul, juseyo, hanna, dul, set, mashisumnida, chun, beg, yogi, chogi, moyo, nugu nugu, ahn, choiyong, momo, chongso, yobo, seyo, paksushehbansheesh, aul mayeo, omma, appa, odiyo, meeanhamnida, chogum, emo, choiyo, oi, ban, aniyong, ay, yobo, omani, azshuma, ego, imnida, boobi-boobi, jincha, gumbeh, heyjuseyo, chinchang, chooku, bussuh, yepuda, yepoyo, geeyupta, choopta, cromeon, nore, modugesayo, sung seng neim, gyo chung, gyo gam, cheegeh, whey, pi, sukara, chodun, hakyo, jeegineh, chukara

My Korean TV debut

This morning, when I got to school, Stella asked me where I was last night and I told her I went to the Lotte Game. She started laughing and asked, "Did you dance" and I said, "Yes, one time to Sorry, Sorry, Sorry." (This is the song my students taught me the music video dance to.) She immediately started laughing evn harder and asked, "Were you wearing black?" and I said, "yes. why?!" She said, "I was at home sick, so I was watching the game on TV, and you were on TV dancing!

Take me out to the ball game!

Last night, Kev and I went to a Lotte Giants baseball game with Jess, Carlos, Kristin, and 2 teachers from Carlos's school who helped us get tickets for 5,000 won - the equivalent of about $3.75.  We were in the 10th row!

First, we stopped for some pizza at Pizaa Hut!  mmmm....

As we were walking to the stadium, we saw this little kiddo holding onto his mom's bag! I thought of all those parents who use the leashes with their kids... Maybe try telling them they have to hold your bag or they'll get time out!   It seemed to work with this kiddo!

Carlos's teacher friends brought this food into the stadium to eat as a snack - pig intenstine and stomach!  uuuugggg

The girls behind us helped us make these pom poms out of newspaper!  Everyone in the stadium made one to cheer with!  Koreans are so darn resourceful... and shy - These girls covered their faces because they didn't think they were pretty...  In my opinion, they were all gorgeous!

During the 7th inning, the stadium workers passes around these orange plastic bags that people filled with air and tied to their heads.   

Carlos's co worker made his into a big bow!

The stadium.  We were in the 10th row, behind 3rd base.

I found this little munchkin, who was all decked out in his Giants gear!

The gang! :)

Mona who??

Today, I was waiting outside of the library for my kids to come for the after school English Club that I do on Wednesday's. I was staring at a picture of the Mona Lisa on the wall in the hallway and some of my 6th grade girls came over and pointed at it and said, "Teacher, Mona Licha." I replied, "Yes, I know! It's the Mona Lisa." Their response was, "No teacher, it's the Mona Licha" and gestured with their hands and mouth that I was saying it wrong! Precious!

Thailand here we come... well, in 74 days!

It's official!  We have purchased our tickets for our dream vacation - 18 glorious days in Thailand where we will be beach hopping all around the country and basking in the sun and clear blue waters of one of the most beautiful countries in the world!   August 9th will not get here soon enough - Start the countdown - 74 days from today!!

Bazzinga is my best friend!

It's official, I am completely addicted to the MAC widget: Bazzinga.  I'm hoping that if I acknowledge it for the whole world to know, I will stop playing 15 games a day on my laptop!   

GIRLS ONLY Sunday!

Jess, Kristin and I always enjoy hanging out, all together, with our guys, but sometimes we just need a ladies only day! Today, we did just that! On my way to meet the girls, I came across these women in their late 60's who were carrying tubs of bricks - literally- on their heads up 5 flights of stairs at my subway! I was blown aways and had to take a picture! We all say that the old women in Korea have magical strength!

We met So Won and Shilla (some of our Korean friends) in Seomyeon for some Shabu Shabu - meat and vegetables that you dip in boiling water at your table.

Here's a picture of Jess with the gigantic plate of vegetables that they brought us!

After lunch, we endulged in some strawberry ice cream that tasted like cold strawberry whipped cream - mmm...

We intended on getting pedicures, but every place we went to was already busy, and since it was pouring rain, we decided we would duck into the underground subway shops and do some shopping. During our shopping extravaganza I found these "TOME" shoes. For those of you who know TOMS shoes, I'm sure you're laughing right now! Kev and I sold TOMS in our boutique in PHX... I have to hand it to the people who made these - they are identical!

So Won and Shilla had other plans, so after they left, Kristin Jess and I walked to a local DVD Bang (a private mini movie theatre with a leather couch-bed) and watched "He's Just Not That Into You." It was the perfect thing to do on a rainy day!


Since so many of you love seeing the Engrish shirts and signs, this next section is for your viewing pleasure! :)

This girl's shirt said "DAVID BECKHA"

This sign says that "SARTBUCKS COFFEE" is to the right.

This is a sign for Busan Women's University, but if I didn't know any better I would have thought it was an add for a preschool.

It's always important to take the "HAPPY SUBWAY"

On my subway ride home tonight, I was looking through my phone and found a section called emoticons... they are pre-made pictures that you can send to your friends. I thought these 2 were worth posting. :)

My Perfect Saturday!

People usually only dream of perfect days, but today, I think Kev and I had one of the closest things to a perfect day we could have imagined! Everything about it was either adventurous, relaxing, exciting, endulgent, or just plain wonderful! Here's how it went:

1. Breakfast together, at our place, in our PJ's...

2. Going to the Jim Jil Bang in Tosendong...

3. Getting 1 hour massages...

4. Nampodong for some shopping and lunch together...

5. Riding the scooter along a windy and secluded 2 lane coastal road.

6. Finding a gorgeous and isolated walking trail that we never knew existed!

7. Walking, hand in hand, up this path, overlooking the ocean and nearby islands.

8. Finding this really old wooden bridge and jumping across it as if we were kids again..

9. Playing with water frogs in the ocean...

9. Finding a live starfish...

10. Riding the scooter along the same windy, tree covered road further west...

11. Cooking Korean food that Mr. Chun bought for us - beef, veggies, and rice...

12. Watching a movie at a nearby DVD Bang, in a room all to ourselves with a leather couch-bed, a coke light and some Lotte chocolate...

14. Riding the scooter back home and watching LOST together on Kev's laptop...

15. And now, at 1:17am, I'm sitting on our bed, listening to a jazz album that Kev put on before he fell asleep, and reminiscing about our full and perfect day! I am overwhelmed and thankful for my husband's adventurous heart and his love for me, which was evident in every moment of today! I couldn't ask for anything more! As the grandma in the movie Hope Floats said, "My cup runneth over!"

Dinner, Drinks, and crazy dogs!

Last night, Carlos, Jess, Kevin and I were invited to a Korean home for dinner! 

The husband is a PE teacher at Carlos's ALL BOYS middle school and is an ex-professional basketball player in Korea!  -- He's on the far right in the picture above. Carlos calls him "Mr. Kim," but at the end of the night, he and his wife asked us to call them "Omma," which means mom, and "Oppa" which means dad.  We felt very honored!  They took all 4 of us under their wings as if we were their own children and told us we could come to their home whenever we wanted.

Omma and her best friend, who spoke NO english - but was always smiling, cooked some really great food for us - American style!  They made a salad, nachos, steak and potatos, california rolls, and some sausages.  We all had 2nd's!   When we told them we were so excited to eat American food again, Omma said, "I know!  That's why I cooked these things!  I am very happy you came to eat at my home."  A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E!

During dinner, I told a story about my 5th grade girls teaching me the dance to a pop song called "Sorry, Sorry" by Juper Junior; a very popular Korean boy band.  They all egged me to perform it, so since I didn't want to dissapoint our hosts, wink - wink, I stood up and showed off my dance moves!  They loved it so much the girls asked me to teach them too.  This is a picture of us all performing for the boys!  :)

This is the actual music video:

After dinner and some drinks, the sun was beginning to go down and Omma and Oppa were worried about their dogs being in the backyard in the dark.  We said, "Oh please bring them in..."  Before Omma opened the back door, she warned us that their dogs were really spoiled, and that they might jump up on us, but we said, "No, it's okay!  We are all used to big dogs!"  But I don't think we expected this...  Hachi, their gigantic husky, jumped right onto my back!  I was laughing histerically!

We spent the rest of the night listening to Omma's favorite music, which included: Christina Aguilera's greatest hits, Celine Dion, and Michael Bolton.   At one point, we all spontaneously got up and danced together in the kitchen!  This is a pic of Kevin dancing with Omma's best friend, who didn't speak a lick of English!  She was sooo shy and embarrassed, but loved it, of course!!

It was such an awesome night!  We felt so blessed to have been able to experience having dinner and drinks with such welcoming and kind Koreans and their "doggies!" It made us remember, once again, why we chose to live here...   Here are some more random pictures of us with the doggies!  Shasha (black) and Hachi (brown).  They loved us!

Kevin fed him a piece of fruit - and yes, Omma told him he could.  Infact, she actually handed us the fruit and said that Hachi would eat it from our mouths!  Like I said, these dogs are SPOILED!

I decided I would try too! 

This is sweet little Shasha - 1 year old.

Kevin and Hachi played liked this all night!

I had to save the best pictures for last!  They taught Hachi how to do piggy back rides!  

I had to try it - of course!